A company owned by Marquise María de Borbón y de Rojas, cousin of King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, requested that those affected by the DANA disaster, in a village in Requena, be prohibited from traveling on a road that belongs. “We do not understand this insistence on crossing our property with two public roads and we are not responsible for any repairs to the road destroyed by DANA,” says a letter from Borcier SA, the company that owns the Casa Vieja property, to which elDiario.es had access.
This is the company that owns a large part of the land in the area. The king’s cousin company accumulates 1,997 hectares of arid orchards, pine forests and “white mountain” in the property known as Coto del Reatillo, acquired in 1995, according to data consulted by this newspaper in the Land Registry of Requena . The area is equivalent to 2,797 football fields.
The village of Reatillo also served during the post-war period as a camp for the Guerrilla Group of the Levant and Aragon (AGLA), the precarious communist resistance to the first Franco regime. Currently, at least three elderly neighbors live there (Vicente, Dora and Miguel), as well as a pastor. A stone’s throw away, the king’s cousin’s estate, located at kilometer 10,600 of the CV-395 which connects Requena and Chera, is also a private hunting reserve.
The bridge that connects the CV-395 highway to the village of Reatillo “collapsed” due to the “devastating” DANA, indicates the letter from the company, which also recalls that it is not responsible for its repair . Borcier SA claims that it “does not and has not granted any authorization” for villagers to cross its property and that it is also not responsible for any type of “incident” that may involve “liability or complaint” for owners.
The letter, signed by the sole administrator of the company, Ramón José de la Cierva García-Bermúdez, was sent on November 7 to the Hydrographic Confederation of Júcar (CHJ), the Ministry of Agriculture, Water , livestock and fishing and to the municipalities of Requena, Siete Aguas and Chera. In the letter, the company acknowledges that residents of the village of Reatillo “are cut off from all communication” due to the catastrophic DANA that hit the region on October 29.
The inhabitants of the small village “are isolated by their own decision because they did not accept the evacuation by the Civil Guard helicopter” and, according to the company, “they refuse to travel” on the public roads which connect Reatillo to Siete. Aguas and the Oliveras.
Those close to the Emeritus King denounce the traffic on their roads of neighbors affected by DANA, “with vehicles or on foot and with dogs roaming free within a private hunting reserve”. They also cross cultivation plots, the letter adds.
Assets of 3.9 million euros
Borcier SA, created in 1990 and dedicated to culture, has assets of 3.9 million euros (i.e. the same figure as its share capital and its tangible assets), according to its latest annual accounts, corresponding to the financial year 2023 and filed in the Commercial Register. . It has three workers on permanent contracts, two of whom are in the field and a third, employed in the office and receiving a senior manager’s salary.
María de Borbón y de Rojas, daughter of the Marquis of Squilache Alfonso de Borbón y Caralt, appears as a representative of the company, as well as her children Iván and María de la Cierva Borbón. The Marquise’s husband, the agronomist Ramón José de la Cierva García Bermúdez, appears as sole administrator.
The engineer, in a telephone conversation with this newspaper, recognizes that “the solution” with his neighbors “is not easy”, because the village of Reatillo depends on three municipalities (Requena, Siete Aguas and Chera) and is located in a flood zone “The village has no telephone, no electricity, no sewers,” recalls the sole administrator of Borcier SA (acronym for Borbón y de la Cierva).
“We were the first to arrive in Reatillo to find out about them and their state of health; Just then the Civil Guard helicopter arrived,” says de la Cierva, Marquis of Mairena. The man, as he explains, simply intends to dissociate himself from any type of responsibility in the event of an accident on his property. Ramón José de la Cierva assures that he collaborated by preparing a letter to request help from the social services of the three municipalities for the inhabitants of the village affected by DANA.
He also declares having made an appointment with Juanito, a shepherd with an enclosure in the village, to authorize him to “pack” his “sheep” and his “lambs” on the exalted property of the marquises. “We have clearly told the Civil Guard that we will turn a blind eye, even if [el terreno] “It’s very bad to pass,” says de la Cierva, who demands that the CHJ repair the “fallen bridge.” “Officially, I cannot authorize them to cross my property but it is an exceptional problem and I look away,” defends the owner of the premises.
The “stubborn” villagers of Reatillo
The letter of November 7, in a more energetic tone, regrets that the inhabitants of the village “insist” on passing through the farm. “We believe,” say those close to the emeritus king, that on November 6, the inhabitants of the village “called the Civil Guard to tell them where to cross.” “What we know is that the Civil Guard showed them the path that leads to Las Oliveras-El Reatillo, so that this path is the one to use,” the letter adds.
However, according to the company’s account, on November 7, villagers “repeatedly” ignored the Civil Guard’s alleged instructions, “insisting on crossing private property.” Homeowners say neighbors damaged their property and put themselves in danger. “The terrain is dangerous, muddy, unstable [e] inclined,” they warn in the letter.
The sole administrator of Borcier SA is unaware that the villagers have authorization from the CHJ to “invade” the public hydraulic domain and also maintains that they have carried out an “illegal creation of a route” through their property. The letter ends by asking them to register their “opposition” to neighbors crossing roads and private plots and emphasizing the company’s “absence of liability” in the event of an accident.
“We reaffirm that these residents of the village of Reatillo, voluntarily, did not want to be evacuated and relocated by the Civil Guard helicopter that landed in the village, and that they have two public roads, which is much better than saying that the dangerous road they create without anyone’s permission and use freely without authorization,” the letter reiterates.
The affairs of the marquises
Ramón José de la Cierva, also CEO of the real estate company Ferisa Galicia SA and representative of Global City Information Technologies SL, responds to this newspaper’s call from Madrid. The marquis couple lives between the capital and the Requena domain. “It’s complicated,” he insists, referring to the situation of the village’s residents, most of whom are elderly and childless. “Theoretically, there are three neighbors,” de la Cierva explains, referring to the oldest, although the shepherd and two other neighbors also live in Reatillo, he says.
His wife, cousin of the King Emeritus, in addition to being director of the Cultural Foundation of the Spanish Nobility, is also linked to other businesses with her husband and children: she is the representative of the real estate developer Belvento Solare SL, with with assets of 2.6 million euros and CEO of Urban Qapla SL (with assets of almost half a million euros).
The Marquis of Mairena also defends the help he has given to the residents of the area, by having satellite communications and solar panels on the property. “Thanks to this, all the inhabitants of Chera and Requena who wanted to communicate with their loved ones were able to do so, it was like a pilgrimage,” says Ramón José de la Cierva in the form of “anecdotes”.
